The resolution adopted by 33 countries condemns the Israeli
government's stewardship of Jerusalem.

More than 30 countries voted
for the resolution which was passed last week [EPA]More than 30 countries
voted for the resolution which was passed last week [EPA]

The
language of a UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem describing "so-called" Jewish
sites and putting the Western Wall Plaza in quotation marks has sparked
outrage in Israel.

The resolution, adopted by the United Nations cultural
agency's 58-nation executive board last week, condemns the Israeli
government's stewardship of Jerusalem and decries the renovation of
"so-called Jewish ritual baths" and the alleged creation of "Jewish fake
graves".

Sites are either referred to by their Arabic or English names,
or, in the case of the Western Wall Plaza, the holiest site where Jews can
pray, are put in quotation marks.

The Western Wall is in East
Jerusalem's historic Old City, which was occupied by Israel along with the
rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Middle East war,
though Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed the Jerusalem Law, which in
1980 declared the city "complete and united".

However, the vast
majority of the international community - including the United States, the
European Union and the UN - do not recognise Israel's claims to sovereignty
over East Jerusalem.

The Israeli government described the resolution,
which was voted for by 33 countries, as "hideous" and penned letters to all
countries that signed the resolution, which included France, Russia and
China.

"The UNESCO resolution has no practical validity. Nevertheless, we
will not permit international entities to blur the Jewish people’s
connection to its eternal capital," Dore Gold, director general of the
country's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The
United Kingdom and the US abstained from the vote.

Source: Al Jazeera and
agencies

(2) UNESCO resolution safeguards Dome of the Rock from Jewish
plan to build Third Temple there

The
UNESCO resolution referred to the Temple Mount area solely as the Al-Aqsa
Mosque or Al-Haram Al Sharif, ignoring the Jewish claim to the site.

The
resolution called Israel "the occupying power" and the Western Wall as
Al-Buraq Plaza. It demanded that Israel not restrict Muslim access to the
Temple Mount, condemning Israel for "illegal measures against the freedom of
worship" at the "Muslim holy site of worship". It demanded a return to the
"status quo". The status quo since Israel conquered the Temple Mount in 1967
forbids non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount and has remained
unchanged.

Blaming "Israel aggression" for the violence at the site, it
had no mention of the role of Muslim rioters.

It also condemned the
Israel’s plans to establish an egalitarian, non-Orthodox prayer section by
Robinson’s Arch.

It accused Israel of "planting Jewish fake graves in
other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries" located on Waqf property east and
south of the Temple Mount, and of "the continued conversion of many Islamic
and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish
prayer places.".

It referred to Hebron and Bethlehem as solely
"Palestinian sites".

Authorized by the executive board’s Programme and
External Relations Commission, the resolution was submitted by Algeria,
Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan. The 58-member board
approved the resolution with 33 votes in favor, six against and 17
abstentions. Two countries, Ghana and Turkmenistan were absent all together.
Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the US
voted against the resolution. France, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Russia and
Slovenia were among those countries that supported the
resolution.

Israeli ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama, released a
statement saying, "Even if UNESCO passes dozens of resolutions, and decides
to continue passing thousands more, Jerusalem will always remain as part of
the capital of Israel and the Jewish people." Shama added, "As you continue
on this path of incitement, lies and terror you will be sending UNESCO
down a path towards irrelevance."

"This is yet another absurd UN
decision," Netanyahu said Saturday. "UNESCO ignores the unique historic
connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where the two temples stood for a
thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands
of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again
proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop."

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A UNESCO resolution does not recognize a
Jewish connection to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount and calls Israel
an "occupying power."

The resolution was adopted Friday by the
executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization resolution at a meeting in Paris.

Six months after the
organization decided not to classify the Western Wall as a solely Muslim
site, the measure refers to the Western Wall as Al-Buraq Plaza and to the
Temple Mount as the Al-Aksa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif.

The
resolution, which condemns Israeli actions in eastern Jerusalem, the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, accuses Israel of being an "occupying power," of
"planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries" and
of "the continued conversion of many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the
so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer places," according to
Israeli newspaper reports.

It also criticizes Israel for its decision to
build an egalitarian prayer area in the Western Wall Plaza and for "illegal
measures against the freedom of worship" at the "Muslim holy site of
worship." The resolutions refers to the cities of Hebron and Bethlehem as
solely Muslim, and raps Israeli control over the Tomb of the Patriarchs and
Rachel’s Tomb, both in Hebron.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu blasted the resolution.

"This is yet another absurd U.N.
decision," Netanyahu said in a statement issued Saturday night. "UNESCO
ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where
two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world
has prayed for thousands of years. The U.N. is rewriting a basic part of
human history and has once again proven that there is no low to which it
will not stoop."

COMMUNAL leaders have slammed a
resolution set to be considered this week by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) that designates the Kotel as a
Muslim holy site.

Making no mention of the Western Wall’s Jewish
heritage, let alone its status as the holiest site in Judaism, the motion
describes it as "an integral part" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and calls
it "Buraq Plaza", referring to the Islamic tradition that Muhammad’s winged
steed (buraq) was tethered there when he ascended to
heaven.

Submitted by Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait and the
United Arab Emirates on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, the resolution
also describes Jerusalem as "the occupied capital of Palestine", lays
blame for the recent spate of violence solely on Israel and condemns
attacks on the mosque by Jewish extremists, while accusing Israel of
trying to break the status quo of the site.

The Israeli Foreign
Ministry decried the motion as "an attempt to redraw history and blur the
connection between the Jewish people and its holiest place and to create a
false reality".

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)
executive director Colin Rubenstein said, "It is ironic that while Israel is
falsely accused of changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, the
Palestinian leadership is actively seeking to change the status quo of the
Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest place of worship. It is also outrageous that
UNESCO, an organisation intended to protect cultural heritage, is
denying the Jewish people’s historical and religious connection to the
site, and further inflaming tensions in Jerusalem."

Stating that
UNESCO’s credibility was at stake, AIJAC’s Jeremy Jones – who spoke at the
inaugural UNESCO World Culture Forum in 2013 – added, "No academic, no
scholar, no religious personality and no fundamentally moral human being
should be anything other than outraged at this move."

The sentiment was
echoed by B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich,
who labelled the resolution "outrageous and vile", claiming it "maliciously
engages in historical revisionism" and adding that it "will irreparably harm
relations during these volatile times, and further damage the prospects of
dialogue and peace".

Wailing
at the Wrong Wall: Misunderstandings About Jerusalem’s Temple
Mount

Posted on October 18, 2015

by Richard Edmondson

[ Ed.
note – The assumption that the Al Aqsa Mosque occupies a site where a Jewish
temple once stood may well be an erroneous one. This is not a new theory.
The article below was posted in 2011 and its findings are based upon
archaeological discoveries of the last century. Of course it has profound
implications for events that are taking place now as Palestinians battle to
defend the Al Aqsa mosque from Jewish settlers who claim that it is their
right to go there and "pray."

My own personal take on all this is that
whatever may have stood on the site in the past, whether it may have been a
Jewish temple or simply a Roman fortress, it is a place of Muslim worship
now. Which means it deserves the same sanctity and respect as any other
place of worship. If a bunch of crazed fanatics showed up at the church I go
to–and claimed they had a right to hold their own worship services and
prayers there–I would tell them to get lost, and I think most people would
feel the same. Likewise if a mob showed up at a Jewish synagogue making the
same demands. It wouldn’t be any different.

But of course, Jewish
supremacism being what it is, the Jews who have been causing all the trouble
at the Al Aqsa Mosque, and whose activities were a main contributing factor
to the intifada we are now witnessing, obviously feel they have a right to
go into someone else’s house of worship and claim it as their own. The
Temple Institute is even already drawing up plans for construction of a
temple. But the article below raises what quite obviously are some serious
questions, for if the conclusions drawn by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon and
historian Benjamin Mazar are correct, then it would seem Jews have been
wailing at the wrong wall for the past thousand-odd
years.]

Misunderstandings About Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

By George
Wesley Buchanan

While it has not been widely published, it assuredly has
been known for more than 40 years that the 45-acre, well-fortified place
that has been mistakenly called the "Temple Mount" was really the Roman
fortress—the Antonia—that Herod built. The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa
Mosque are contained within these walls. The area is called the Haram
Al-Sharif in Arabic.

The discovery that this area had once been the
great Roman fortress came as a shock to the scholarly community, which had
believed for many years that this ancient fortress was the place where the
temple had been. This news was preceded by another shock, when the English
archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon discovered in 1962 that the entire City of
David in the past had been only that little rock ridge on the western bank
of the Kidron Valley. Less than 10 years later the historian Benjamin Mazar
learned that the Haram had undoubtedly been the Roman fortress.

In
biblical times the Haram was not a sacred place. Instead it was the place
that Orthodox Jews considered defiled and the most despised place in the
world. Within these walls were found no remnants of any of the earlier
temples but rather an image of Mars, the Roman god of war. The 1st century
Jewish Roman historian Titus Flavius Josephus said the Romans always kept a
whole legion of soldiers (5,000-6,000) there, and that there were stones in
its walls that were 30 feet long, 15 feet thick, and 71/2 feet high. While
excavating the area, Mazar found these very stones there in the Haram—not in
the temple.

He and the local Muslims also discovered there three
inscriptions, honoring the Roman leaders in the war of A.D. 66-72—Vespasian,
Titus, and Silva—and Hadrian in the war of A.D. 132-135, for their success
in defeating the Jews in the wars. Appropriate inscriptions for a Roman
fortress, but impossible for a temple that had been destroyed in A.D.
70—65 years before the inscriptions had been made. Mazar shared these
insights freely with other participants in the excavation, such as
Herbert Armstrong and Ernest Martin.

Mazar also knew at once that the
temple instead was stationed 600 feet farther south and 200 feet lower in
altitude, on Mount Ophel, where the Spring of Siloam poured tons of water
under the threshold of the temple every minute (Ezek 47:1), after which the
water was distributed wherever it was needed. This marvelous little City of
David was unique in having running water 3,000 years ago. Aristeas, Tacitus
and 1 Enoch tell of the inexhaustible spring water system that was
indescribably well developed, gushing tons of water into the temple area for
sacrifices. Hezekiah’s tunnel directed water under Mount Ophel to the Pool
of Siloam.

Herod’s fortress, on the other hand, was unequipped for
sacrifices, because it had only 37 cisterns to provide water in the
Haram.

After two violent wars with Rome, the City of David was so
completely destroyed that it could not be recognized as a city. The Roman
emperor Hadrian decreed that it would be used as an area where the Upper
City could dump trash and garbage. It continued in that condition for
hundreds of years. The Upper City developed, and people forgot what a
marvelous little city this had once been. They simply guessed where
strategic locations in the City of David must have been in the Upper
City. Of course, this was a normal mistake.

Now, 50 years after
Kenyon’s discovery, scholars like Leen Ritmeyer, Eilat Mazar and Hershel
Shanks have recently written books as if no one knew that the Haram was the
Roman Fortress and that Solomon’s, Zechariah’s and Herod’s temples all were
located near the Spring of Siloam. Tourists are still mistakenly told that
the Haram is the Temple Mount, that David’s citadel is near the Jaffa Gate,
and that Mount Zion and the place where the Last Supper was held are all in
the Upper City.

Israel’s antiquities authority has been digging a tunnel
from under homes in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan to the
Western Wall Plaza. According to a recent "60 Minutes" interview, Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat wants to create King’s Garden, a Bible-themed tourist
park "adjacent to the City of David," which requires demolishing 22 Arab
homes in Silwan. The purpose of archeology is to provide archeological
insights, of course, but excavations between the City of David and the
old Roman fortress (the Haram) also have an anti-Arab political
agenda.

It is not likely that a fourth temple will ever be constructed,
either in the City of David or in theHaram. Israel already has diverted the
water formerly used for sacrifices away from the former temple area and
is making the City of David into a park. Orthodox Jews would oppose
having a temple in Herod’s hated fortress. Jews had no interest in the
Haram until after the Crusades, when they misunderstood that it was the
Temple Mount. If the temple were ever built, it would have to be placed
somewhere in the Upper City or a suburb of Jerusalem—not in its former
site or in the old Roman Fortress.

Because innocent Evangelical
Christians in America, under the guidance of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell
and John Hagee, have not been informed of these facts, they have thought
there was some biblical or religious reason why it was necessary to destroy
Islam’s third most sacred building in the world, together with the al-Aqsa
mosque. It is my hope that, once Christians learn of this mistake, they will
stop following Mars and Phineas (Num 25; Ps 106:30-31) and work as zealously
for peace, following the teachings of Abraham, the 8th century prophets
(Mica 6:8), Jesus, and Paul, as they once worked to promote war in the
Middle East. This would make a tremendous difference to Jerusalem—and to the
world.

George Wesley Buchanan has been a United Methodist minister since
1944 and a professor at a theological seminary since 1960, emeritus since he
retired in 1991.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit bases decision on 2013 directive
issued by Western Wall rabbi that prohibits prayer services in Western
Wall's upper plaza

Yair Altman and Israel Hayom Staff

The
Western Wall in Jerusalem

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided on
Wednesday to forbid the Reform and Conservative movements from holding a
mixed-gender, egalitarian prayer service in the Western Wall's upper plaza
that had been scheduled for Thursday morning.

Mendelblit based his
decision on a 2013 directive issued by Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz
that prohibited prayer services in the upper plaza, which is located behind
the separate prayer areas for men and women that are adjacent to the Western
Wall.

However, mixed-gender, egalitarian prayer services had been held
recently in the upper plaza with the attorney general's
consent.

Mendelblit's office explained on Wednesday that the upper plaza
is designated for state ceremonies and other nonreligious events. It
suggested that the mixed-gender, egalitarian prayer service be held at
Robinson's Arch, south of the main Western Wall plaza.

The dispute over the
Western Wall could evolve from a local controversy between ultra-Orthodox
and liberal Jewish organizations (the Reform and Conservative streams of
Judaism known as Progressive Judaism and Women of the Wall) into an
unprecedented head-on confrontation between the various religious factions
in Israel and could even culminate in the overthrow of the
government.

Author Mordechai Goldman

Posted July 14,
2016

Translator Hanni Manor

Here's a summary of events: In
January, the government made a historic decision to grant liberal Jewish
organizations a recognized status at the Western Wall. The plan calls for
the appointment of representatives on behalf of liberal Jews to the public
council to be set up to manage the Western Wall prayer space, and for the
establishment of a special prayer compound next to Robinson's Arch to serve
this population.

The ultra-Orthodox, who were not happy with the
decision, to say the least, warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that
they would leave the coalition (thus toppling the government) unless the
plan is significantly modified and restricted under the law. Meanwhile,
Reform organizations appealed to the Supreme Court to enforce the decision.
However, in view of the ultra-Orthodox objections, the state appealed to
the Supreme Court no less than eight times to put off the implementation
of the plan and allow time to reach a compromise. Alas, no such deal
seems to be in the offing.

Before the most recent deferral on July 5,
the representatives of the religious parties in the Knesset met with
Netanyahu and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. Following the meeting,
the ultra-Orthodox made it clear that they would by no means agree to give
the Reform Jews a foothold at the Western Wall. At the same time, the Reform
organizations continue to stand firm and declare that they have no intention
of compromising.

"I think that the ultra-Orthodox would not agree to
settle for anything less than two specific principles," said Pinchas
Tenenbaum, the spokesman for Chief Rabbi David Lau, who is involved in the
negotiations on a compromise. He told Al-Monitor, "The first principle is a
distinctly separate entrance to the prayer compound allocated to the
Reform Jews, well before the entrance to the present prayer space. The
second principle is the cancellation of their representation in the
public council."

Al-Monitor has learned that a new compromise
proposal is quietly under discussion whereby no official status would be
granted to the Reform movement on the site, and the Jewish Agency would be
given authority there in its place. In addition, a separate entrance leading
to the section allocated to the Reform Jews would be set up to the
satisfaction of all the parties concerned. Talking with Al-Monitor, senior
ultra-Orthodox figures expressed approval of the proposed plan, and said
that the ultra-Orthodox leadership would most likely support it.

On
the other hand, right-wing organizations with Merkaz Liba leading the battle
have already made it clear that they would oppose the proposed plan
regardless of the support emerging among ultra-Orthodox politicians. "We
will go from one rabbi to another and convince them that the plan is a
sham," Liba leader Yehuda Wald told Al-Monitor. "We have researched the
issue and found that the Jewish Agency is a notably pro-Reform body; and
allowing it a foothold in the Western Wall compound would be the same as
allowing the Reform Jews themselves a foothold in the site. The politicians
are hiding this information from the rabbis, and we will expose
it."

The list of those opposing the proposed compromise includes the
Reform movement itself. Talking with Al-Monitor, Reform movement Rabbi Gilad
Kariv clarified that he would not compromise on the issues of
representation in the council and joint entrance to the site. "They are
trying to drive us out," he said, "but we are not going to give up our
demand for an entry to our section from within the Western Wall compound
and we will not give up our representation in the public council. We
will not agree to a situation where the ultra-Orthodox have a monopoly
on running the Western Wall compound." Still, Kariv also implied that he
would agree to certain compromises, provided that all the parties
seriously discuss it together.

Meanwhile, tempers are flaring at the
Western Wall. On July 7, prayers on the site by Reform Jews and Women of the
Wall led to a violent incident when ultra-Orthodox worshipers jeered at them
and blew whistles.

Reuven B., who asked that his full name not be
divulged, one of the self-described leading activists in the "fight against
the liberals" who prays daily at the Western Wall, described his own actions
to Al-Monitor. "There is no organization behind us," he was quick to
clarify. "I have 20 whistles in my pocket and in the women's section
there are also women with whistles. Last week, Women of the Wall arrived
to the site with the intention of reading the Torah. I mobilized a
number of young Americans who happened to be at the Western Wall and
they were excited about the idea. We started making noise and disturbing
them. The police could do nothing to us, as we did not use violence.
It's our right to sing and whistle. There is no law against it."

"The
failure of the police to intervene is very serious in my eyes, since once
the Supreme Court has approved prayers [by Reform Jews] at the site, the
police must assist," said Kariv. "Anyway, we will not give up and we'll
continue to send the women to pray in the public plaza. We are not deterred
by those hooligans. If the police fail to protect us, we will appeal to the
Supreme Court to force the police to perform their duty." Kariv added that
if no fair compromise is reached soon, they would petition the Supreme Court
and ask to establish a mixed-gender prayer compound inside the central
prayer space.

"We will go all the way on this issue," said Kariv. Noting
that about 2 million Jews are registered members of progressive Jewish
communities worldwide (and another 2 million Jews define themselves as
progressive without being registered, according to a Pew survey), Kariv
added, "We are a huge group in the Jewish people and we are not going to let
anyone to exclude us. If we are prevented from praying at the Western Wall,
neither will the ultra-Orthodox be able to pray at the Western
Wall."

Ongoing negotiations notwithstanding, the parties are still far
from reaching an agreement. Both the liberals and ultra-Orthodox face
opposition from within to any compromise. Thus, for instance, there were
quite a few in the liberal community who opposed the government-approved
Western Wall plan, while disagreements on the issue have led to a split
in Women of the Wall. Likewise, there are various elements in the
ultra-Orthodox community who are deliberately acting against any
compromise on ideological grounds, although many in the leadership are
willing to make a deal. No compromise on this sensitive issue may be
reached or sustained as long as there is no unified position acceptable
to all within the two opposing streams.

How the ’Ain Dara temple in Syria sheds
light on King Solomon in the Bible and his famous temple

08/10/2015
Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

This Bible History Daily article was
originally published in October 2013. It has been updated.—Ed.

For
centuries, scholars have searched in vain for any remnant of Solomon’s
Temple. The fabled Jerusalem sanctuary, described in such exacting detail in
1 Kings 6, was no doubt one the most stunning achievements of King Solomon
in the Bible, yet nothing of the building itself has been found because
excavation on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, site of the Temple of King Solomon,
is impossible.

Fortunately, several Iron Age temples discovered
throughout the Levant bear a striking resemblance to the Temple of King
Solomon in the Bible. Through these remains, we gain extraordinary insight
into the architectural grandeur of the building that stood atop Jerusalem’s
Temple Mount nearly 3,000 years ago.

As reported by archaeologist
John Monson in the pages of BAR, the closest known parallel to the Temple of
King Solomon is the ’Ain Dara temple in northern Syria. Nearly every aspect
of the ’Ain Dara temple—its age, its size, its plan, its
decoration—parallels the vivid description of the Temple of King Solomon in
the Bible. In fact, Monson identified more than 30 architectural and
decorative elements shared by the ’Ain Dara structure and the Jerusalem
Temple described by the Biblical writers.

The similarities between
the ’Ain Dara temple and the temple described in the Bible are indeed
striking. Both buildings were erected on huge artificial platforms built on
the highest point in their respective cities. The buildings likewise have
similar tripartite plans: an entry porch supported by two columns, a main
sanctuary hall (the hall of the ’Ain Dara temple is divided between an
antechamber and a main chamber) and then, behind a partition, an elevated
shrine, or Holy of Holies. They were also both flanked on three of their
sides by a series of multistoried rooms and chambers that served various
functions.

Even the decorative schemes of ’Ain Dara temple and the temple
described in the Bible are similar: Nearly every surface, both interior and
exterior, of the ’Ain Dara temple was carved with lions, mythical
animals (cherubim and sphinxes), and floral and geometric patterns, the
same imagery that, according to 1 Kings 6:29, adorned the Temple of King
Solomon in the Bible.

Where did Solomon’s wealth come from? Biblical
texts suggest that the seafaring Phoenicians brought Solomon silver from the
land of Tarshish. A new study points to Spain and Sardinia as the Biblical
world’s source of silver in the 10th century B.C.E., substantiating
associations between Biblical Tarshish and modern Sardinia. Learn more
>>

It is the date of the ’Ain Dara temple, however, that offers the
most compelling evidence for the authenticity of the Biblical Temple of King
Solomon. The ’Ain Dara temple was originally built around 1300 B.C. and
remained in use for more than 550 years, until 740 B.C. The plan and
decoration of such majestic temples no doubt inspired the Phoenician
engineers and craftsmen who built Solomon’s grand edifice in the tenth
century B.C. As noted by Lawrence Stager of Harvard University, the
existence of the ’Ain Dara temple proves that the Biblical description
of Solomon’s Temple was "neither an anachronistic account based on later
temple archetypes nor a literary creation. The plan, size, date and
architectural details fit squarely into the tradition of sacred
architecture from north Syria (and probably Phoenicia) from the tenth to
eighth centuries B.C."

Certain features of the ’Ain Dara temple also
provide dramatic insight into ancient Near Eastern conceptions of gods and
the temples in which they were thought to reside. Carved side-by-side in the
threshold of the ’Ain Dara temple are two gigantic footprints. As one enters
the antechamber of the sanctuary, there is another carving of a right foot,
followed 30 feet away (at the threshold between the antechamber and the
main chamber) by a carving of a left foot. The footprints, each of which
measures 3 feet in length, were intended to show the presence (and
enormity) of the resident deity as he or she entered the temple and
approached his or her throne in the Holy of Holies. Indeed, the 30-foot
stride between the oversize footprints indicates a god who would have
stood 65 feet tall! In Solomon’s Temple, the presence of a massive
throne formed by the wings of two giant cherubim with 17-foot wingspans
(1 Kings 6:23–26) may indicate that some Israelites envisaged their God,
Yahweh, in a similar manner.

2. Recalling the
provisions of the four Geneva Conventions (1949) and their additional
Protocols (1977), the 1907 Hague Regulations on Land Warfare, the Hague
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict (1954) and its additional Protocols, the Convention on the Means of
Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of
Ownership of Cultural Property (1970) and the Convention for the Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), the inscription of the
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls at the request of Jordan on the World
Heritage List (1981) and on the List of World Heritage in Danger (1982), and
the recommendations, resolutions and decisions of UNESCO on the protection
of cultural heritage, as well as resolutions and decisions of UNESCO
relating to Jerusalem, also recalling previous UNESCO decisions related to
the reconstruction and development of Gaza as well as UNESCO decisions on
the two Palestinian sites in Al-Khalil/Hebron and in Bethlehem,

3.
Affirming that nothing in the present decision, which aims, inter alia, at
the safeguarding of the cultural heritage of Palestine and the distinctive
character of East Jerusalem, shall in any way affect the relevant Security
Council and United Nations resolutions and decisions on the legal status of
Palestine and Jerusalem,

4. Deeply regrets the Israeli refusal to
implement UNESCO previous Decisions concerning Jerusalem particularly 185
EX/Decision 14 and notes that its request to the Director-General to
appoint, as soon as possible, a permanent representative to be stationed in
East Jerusalem to report on a regular basis about all the aspects covering
the fields of competence of UNESCO in East Jerusalem,has not been fulfilled
and reiterates its request to the Director-General to appoint the
abovementioned representative;

5. Deeply deplores the failure of
Israel, the Occupying Power, to cease the persistent excavations and works
in East Jerusalem particularly in and around the Old City, and reiterates
its request to Israel, the Occupying Power, to prohibit all such works in
conformity with its obligations under the provisions of the relevant UNESCO
conventions, resolutions and decisions;

6. Thanks the
Director-General for her efforts to implement previous UNESCO decisions on
Jerusalem and asks her to maintain and reinvigorate such efforts;

7.
Calls on Israel, the Occupying Power, to allow for the restoration of the
historic Status Quo, that prevailed until September 2000, under which the
Jordanian Awqaf (Religious Foundation) Department exercised exclusive
authority on Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif, and its mandate extended to
all affairs relating to the unimpeded administration of Al- Aqsa
Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif, including maintenance, restoration, and
regulating access;

8. Strongly condemns the Israeli aggressions and
illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their
Holy Site Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif, and requests Israel, the
Occupying Power, to respect the historic Status Quo and to immediately stop
these measures;

9. Firmly deplores the continuous storming of Al-Aqsa
Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif by the Israeli right-wing extremists and uniformed
forces, and urges Israel, the Occupying Power, to take necessary measures to
prevent provocative abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of
Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif;

10. Deeply decries the continuous
Israeli aggressions against civilians including sheikhs, and priests,
further decries the large number of arrests and injuries among Muslim
worshippers and Jordanian Awqaf guards in Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif
by the Israeli forces and also urges Israel, the Occupying Power, to end
these aggressions and abuses which inflame the tension on the ground and
between faiths;

11. Disapproves the Israeli restriction of access to
Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif during the Eid Al-Adha 2015 and the
subsequent violence and calls on Israel, the Occupying Power, to stop all
violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif;

12. Deeply
regrets the refusal of Israel to grant visas to UNESCO experts in charge of
the UNESCO project at the Centre of Islamic Manuscripts in Al-Aqsa
Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif and requests Israel to deliver visas to UNESCO
experts without restrictions;

13. Also regrets the damage caused by the
Israeli Forces, especially since 23 August 2015, to the historic gates and
windows of the Qibli Mosque inside Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al- Sharif, and
reaffirms, in this regard, the obligation of Israel to respect the
integrity, authenticity and cultural heritage of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram
Al-Sharif, as reflected in the historic status quo, as a Muslim Holy Site of
worship and as an integral part of a World Cultural Heritage
Site;

14. Calls on Israel, the Occupying Power, to stop violations
against the Waqf properties east and south of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram
Al-Sharif, such as the recent confiscations of parts of Al- Youssefeyah
cemetery and Al-Sawanah area by banning Muslims from burying their dead in
some spaces and by planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim
cemeteries, in addition to the dramatic change of the status and
distinctive character of the Umayyad Palaces, in particular the
violation of the continued conversion of many Islamic and Byzantine
remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer
places;

15. Expresses its deep concern over the Israeli closure and ban
of the renovation of the Al- Rahma Gate building, one of Al-Aqsa
Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif gates, and urges Israel, the Occupying Power,
to reopen the Gate, and stop obstruction of the necessary restoration
works, in order to repair the damage caused by the weather conditions,
especially the water leakage into the rooms of the building;

16.
Calls on Israel, the Occupying Power, to stop the obstruction of the
immediate execution of all the 18 Hashemite restoration projects in and
around Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif;

17. Further deplores the
Israeli decision to approve a plan to build a two-line cable car system in
East Jerusalem and the so called "Liba House" project in the Old City of
Jerusalem as well as the construction of the so called "Kedem Center", a
visitor centre near the southern wall of the Mosque, the construction of the
Strauss Building and the project of the elevator in Al- Buraq Plaza "Western
Wall Plaza" and urges Israel, the Occupying Power, to renounce the
above-mentioned projects and to stop the construction works in conformity
with its obligations under the relevant UNESCO conventions, resolutions and
decisions;

19. Takes note of the 15th Reinforced Monitoring Report and
all previous reports, together with their addenda prepared by the World
Heritage Centre as well as the State of Conservation reports submitted to
the World Heritage Centre by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State
of Palestine;

20. Deprecates the persisting Israeli unilateral
measures and decisions regarding the Ascent to the Mughrabi Gate, including
the latest works conducted at the Mughrabi Gate entrance in February 2015,
the instalment of an umbrella at that entrance as well as the enforced
creation of a new Jewish prayer platform south of the Mughrabi Ascent in
Al-Buraq Plaza "Western Wall Plaza", and the removal of the Islamic remains
at the site and reaffirms that no Israeli unilateral measures, shall be
taken in conformity with its status and obligations under the Hague
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict of 1954;

21. Further expresses its deep concern regarding
the illegal demolitions of Ummayyad, Ottoman and Mamluk remains as well as
other intrusive works and excavations in and around the Mughrabi Gate
Pathway, and also requests Israel, the Occupying Power, to halt such
demolitions, excavations and works and to abide by its obligations under the
provisions of the UNESCO conventions mentioned in para 2;

22.
Reiterates its thanks to Jordan for its cooperation and further urges
Israel, the Occupying Power, to cooperate with Jordanian Awqaf Department,
in conformity with its obligations under the provisions of the Hague
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict of 1954, to facilitate access of Jordanian Awqaf experts with their
tools and material to the site in order to enable the execution of the
Jordanian design of the Ascent to the Mughrabi Gate in accordance with
UNESCO and World Heritage Committee decisions particularly 37 COM/7A.26, 38
COM/7A.4 and 39 COM/7A.27

23. Thanks the Director-General for her
attention to the sensitive situation of this matter and asks her to take the
necessary measures in order to enable the execution of the Jordanian design
of the Ascent to the Mughrabi Gate;

24. Stresses yet again the urgent
need of the implementation of the UNESCO Reactive Monitoring Mission to the
Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls;

25. Recalls, in this regard, 196
EX/Decision 24 that requests, in case of non-implementation, to consider, in
conformity with the International Law, other means to ensure its
implementation;

26. Notes with deep concern that Israel, the Occupying
Power, did not comply with any of the 11* decisions of the Executive Board
as well as the six** resolutions of the World Heritage Committee that
request the implementation of the Reactive Monitoring Mission to the Old
City of Jerusalem and its Walls;

27. Regrets the continued Israeli
refusal to act in accordance with UNESCO and World Heritage Committee
decisions that request a UNESCO experts meeting on the Mughrabi Ascent and
the dispatch of a Reactive Monitoring Mission to the Old City of Jerusalem
and its Walls;

28. Invites the Director-General to take necessary
measures to implement the above-mentioned Mission in accordance with World
Heritage Committee decision 34 COM/7A.20, prior to the next session of the
Executive Board, also invites all concerned parties to facilitate the
implementation of that mission and experts meeting;

29. Requests that
the report and recommendations of the mission as well as the report of the
technical meeting on the Mughrabi Ascent, be presented to the concerned
parties;

30. Thanks the Director-General for her continuous efforts to
implement the above-mentioned UNESCO joint Reactive Monitoring Mission and
all related UNESCO decisions and resolutions;

31. Deplores the
military confrontations in and around the Gaza Strip and the civilian
casualties caused, including the killing and injury of thousands of
Palestinian civilians, including children, as well as the continuous
negative impact in the fields of competence of UNESCO, the attacks on
schools and other educational and cultural facilities, including breaches of
inviolability of UNRWA schools;

32. Strongly deplores the continuous
Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which harmfully affects the free and
sustained movement of personnel and humanitarian relief items as well as the
intolerable number of casualties among Palestinian children, the attacks on
schools and other educational and cultural facilities and the denial of
access to education, and requests Israel, the occupying Power, to
immediately ease this blockade;

33. Reiterates its request to the
Director-General to upgrade, as soon as possible, the UNESCO Antenna in Gaza
in order to ensure the prompt reconstruction of schools, universities,
cultural heritage sites, cultural institutions, media centres and places of
worship that have been destroyed or damaged by the consecutive wars on
Gaza;

34. Thanks the Director-General for the information meeting held on
March 2015 on the current situation in Gaza in the fields of competence
of UNESCO and on the outcome of the projects conducted by UNESCO in the
Gaza Strip-Palestine, and invites her to organize another information
meeting on the same matter;

35. Also thanks the Director-General for
initiatives that have already been implemented in Gaza in the fields of
education, culture and youth and for the safety of media professionals, and
calls upon her to continue her active involvement in the reconstruction of
Gaza’s damaged educational and cultural components;

36. Reaffirms
that the two concerned sites located in Al-Khali¯l/Hebron and in Bethlehem
are an integral part of Palestine;

37. Disapproves the ongoing Israeli
illegal excavations, works, construction of private roads for settlers and a
separation wall inside the Old City of Al-Khali¯l/Hebron, that harmfully
affect the integrity of the site, and the subsequent denial of freedom of
movement and freedom of access to places of worship, and urges Israel, the
occupying Power, to end these violations in compliance with provisions of
relevant UNESCO conventions, resolutions and decisions;

38. Deeply
deplores the new cycle of violence, since October 2015, in the context of
the constant aggressions by the Israeli settlers and other extremist groups
against Palestinian residents including schoolchildren, and asks Israel, the
Israeli authorities to prevent such aggressions;

39. Deeply regrets
the Israeli refusal to comply with 185 EX/Decision 15 which requested the
Israeli authorities to remove the two Palestinian sites from its national
heritage list and calls on the Israeli authorities to act in accordance with
that decision;

40. Decides to include these matters under the item
entitled "Occupied Palestine" in the agenda of the Executive Board at its
200th session, and invites the Director-General to submit to it a progress
report on these matters.

About Me

'Mission statement'.
I am convinced that jewish individuals and groups have an enormous influence on the world. The MSM are, for almost all people, the only source of information, and these are largely controlled by jewish people.
So there is a huge under-reporting on jewish influence in the world.
I see it as my mission to try to close this gap. To quote Henry Ford: "Corral the 50 wealthiest jews and there will be no wars." `(Thomas Friedman wrote the same in Haaretz, about the war against Iraq! See yellow marked area, blog 573)
If that is true, my mission must be very beneficial to humanity.